Sleep Together
by psyraven
Summary: Rayne ficlet. First of Five Random Songs series, inspired by Sleep Together by Garbage. River has an important question for Jayne...


A/N: As a challenge and a writing exercise, I set my MP3 player to random and wrote a vignette inspired by each of the first five songs it played. This is the first one.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be either. Even though I promised Joss I'd take good care of them...

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**Inspired by: Sleep Together by Garbage**

_If we sleep together  
Will you like me better?_

She cornered him as he came out of his bunk one day and asked the question that had been circling around inside her head for weeks now: "If we sleep together, will you like me better?"

Jayne nearly fell down the ladder to his bunk, but managed to grab on just in time. "What the…? What?"

"It is a logical supposition. Sex promotes closeness and affection. Feelings of gratitude and endearment."

"Yer offerin' ta…?" Jayne eyed her up warily, wondering what the catch was. "Really?"

"It would serve several purposes. Bring us closer and promote satisfaction, fulfilment." She glanced at him sidelong from under her lashes. "Satiety."

_The emptiness__  
The craziness  
Satisfy this hungriness_

Jayne's brow crinkled in puzzlement. "Don't rightly know what that means."

She moved closer, those agile little fingers of hers dancing up his chest, making him think all kinds of thoughts about other places he'd like to feel them dancing. "Means I'm hungry. Empty." She moaned the last word in a breathy whisper and Jayne felt his knees tremble.

"That's a terrible shame," he said roughly. "Might be I could do somethin' to fix that."

"Would be so grateful," she said, with a look that just dripped sin. Jayne found himself struggling to swallow.

Her arms moved up around his neck and those fingers twined through the hair at his nape. "Make me beautiful," she said.

"Y'already are," he admitted gruffly and the light of her smile nearly blinded him.

_Darling  
How would it feel?_

"Feel less empty already," she said, a kind of wonder in her voice. "Clearly, more Jayne contact is the key."

"Works fer me," Jayne muttered, giving in to the urge to run his hands up and down her sides, then sliding one round to stroke her rear. She gasped and pressed up against him even closer. "Ya like that, huh?"

"Yes!"

He bent his head and ran the tip of his tongue from the base of her neck to the lobe of her ear, just like he did with his knives, only this time he tasted warm, salty-sweet girlflesh instead of cold steel. He nuzzled his nose against her and inhaled. Just a hint of vanilla and cinnamon. Made him think of apple pie and he wondered absently if the rest of her tasted as sweet. Might be he'd be finding out before long, and just the thought of that was enough to make his groin tighten.

"Ya wanna do this now?" he asked, telling himself he wouldn't force her to do anything she wasn't ready for. Weren't going to be no recriminations afterwards, if he had anything to do with it. Then, before he could stop himself, he heard his voice saying: "'Cause we could wait on it a while, if yer want. Fool 'round some and work up ta the big stuff."

He pulled back a little and saw her eyes widen, her hands moving to cup his face. "You would take things slowly to allow me time to accustom myself and prepare?" she asked.

"Well, yeah," Jayne said, slightly embarrassed he'd said anything at all actually. He could have been halfway through sexing her by now if he hadn't had a sudden attack of nobility. Maybe he'd been hanging around Mal too long. Now, _that _was a scary thought. "First time can be kinda important, fer a girl anyways, an' I don't want ya weepin' and wailin' at me after 'bout what an in-sense-tive hundan I was. Like to give me a ruttin' headache," he grumbled.

She gave him that cockeyed smile of hers, where her lips kinda quirked up at one side – it was one of his favourites. "My Jayne _is_ sensitive."

He frowned, suddenly feeling grouchy. "Well, don't go tellin' nobody _that_! Ain't got no call to be sayin' stuff like _that _'bout me."

She stretched up on her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

"Our secret," she promised, then reached down and laced her fingers with his. "Second base tentatively scheduled for tonight. Can re-evaluate schedule following further assessment."

Jayne's lips moved as he tried to work out what she'd just said. Second base was good, right?

River giggled as she saw his perplexed expression. She tugged playfully at their joined hands. "I'll be in your bunk," she said. "Tonight." Then, she pulled reluctantly away and danced off down the corridor, joy lightening her steps and brightening her smile.

Jayne watched her until she was out of sight, a silly grin plastered to his face. Oh, yeah. It was good, all right.


End file.
